chap. is. Elevation of Chiloe. 235 



In a bed of shells, a few feet below the 350 feet bed, I 

 found a horn of the little Cervus humilis, which now 

 inhabits Chiloe. 



The eastern or inland side of Chiloe, with its many 

 adjacent islets, consists of tertiary and boulder deposits, 

 worn into irregular plains capped by gravel. Near 

 Castro, and for ten miles southward, and on the islet of 

 Lemuy, I found the surface of the ground to a height 

 of between twenty and thirty feet above high-water 

 mark, and in several places apparently up to fifty feet, 

 thickly coated by much comminuted shells, chiefly of 

 the Venus costellata and Mytilus Chiloensis; the 

 species now most abundant on this line of coast. As 

 the inhabitants carry immense numbers of these shells 

 inland, the continuity of the bed at the same height 

 was often the only means of recognising its natural 

 origin. Near Castro, on each side of the creek and 

 rivulet of the Gamboa, three distinct terraces are seen : 

 the lowest was estimated at about 150 feet in height, 

 and the highest at about 500 feet, with the country 

 irregularly rising behind it; obscure traces, also, of 

 these same terraces could be seen along other parts of 

 the coast. There can be no doubt that their three 

 escarpments record pauses in the elevation of the 

 island. I may remark that several promontories have 

 the word Huapi, which signifies in the Indian tongue, 

 island, appended to them, such as Huapilinao, Huapi- 

 lacuy, Caucahuapi, etc. ; and these, according to Indian 

 traditions, once existed as islands. In the same manner 

 the term Pulo in Sumatra is appended l to the names 

 of promontories, traditionally said to have been islands ; 

 in Sumatra, as in Chiloe, there are upraised recent 

 shells. The Bay of Carelmapu, on the mainland north 



1 Marsden's ' Sumatra,' p. 31. 



